The Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the Houston Rockets behind missed free throws and lack of rebounding

The Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the Houston Rockets behind missed free throws and lack of rebounding

Yeah, Kenny, you guys scored just 40 points in the first half tonight. What did you think was the issue offensively early? I don’t know. You don’t make free throws and you don’t make threes, you know. It’s it’s uh it’s tough. I I don’t know. They said our shot quality was in the 91st percentile. So, I take that for what you want. I’ll I’ll look at the film. Um you know, um love we you know, I felt like we’re getting to the rim. you know, we’re getting there and getting to the free throw line. Um, you know, we obviously, you know, I don’t want to blame it on them shots, but um, but they, you know, I didn’t really feel like we’re in the game until that until the third quarter when when Naquin and and and CP kind of helped us. I think we cut it to four. Um, but the rest of the game, they kind of dominated us. Um, I’d say, um, you know, they really muck the game up. You know, they they play off shooters and and leave their bigs at the rim. Um, you know, and you got to you got to make them pay. Um, you know, when they when they sit in the paint on you, we couldn’t we didn’t really make them pay. And then early in the game, you subbed out Donovan and Evan together in the first quarter. Not something you had been doing. What led you to that decision? M just looking at guys stance, you know. Um Dre too. I wanted to get Dre with that second unit a little more, get him going because I feel like in the first unit he’s he’s not getting as many looks. So that was part of it. Um you know, shortening Evans stints a little. I felt like I’m I’ve been playing him like 12 minute stints like so. Um it was a little bit and and you know we without Darius we got to we got to learn to survive a little bit about with Adam. Um so I wanted to see what that looked like. Kenny, you guys came into tonight’s game 26 in the NBA free throw percentage. You guys shot 20 of 32. You guys keep getting into these late game situations where it’s 10 points, eight points. How difficult is it to know that free throws? Man, you got to make your free throws. Especially like you say, Ethan, it’s great like fourth quarter end of game like you know um you know it’s just it’s tough. Um it’s it’s such an important part of the game especially when you get 32 attempts. You got to you got to you got to knock them down. So um you know we haven’t been good since preseason really shooting free throws. We we practice them and you know like everybody does and um you know um it’ll turn though. I you know it’ll turn. Um we got good free throw shooters. Um so and Darius obviously is like what mid 80s so that that’s that’s another guy Max good free throw shooter. So uh you know we’re just not making them right now and it’s hurting us. You guys obviously this game kind of looked like uh two different philosophies. They like to play confrontational basketball. You guys like to play free flowing basketball. Kind of indicative of the playoffs as well. philosophy can’t work. Well, they um how should I say they um um enforce their identity when we did and that’s what this league comes down to. You have your identity and you got to go with it. And um you know, it’s the third time they beat us, you know, three in a row. So, they’ve done a better job. I think they had 19 offensive rebounds. Um you know um so yeah, credit to them. Heck of a team contender. Um, you know, tonight we couldn’t stand toe-to-toe with him. Just wasn’t wasn’t there. Mark made his first uh first start. Yeah, I loved him and him and CP. I mean, those guys, they’re not afraid. Um, even uh, you know, Naquin had that corner three, which I I think we cut it, you know, cut the lead down and he just fire. I love that. Like I said, well, you know, he missed it. Um but um I loved his energy tonight, his feistiness. Um you know, you’re hoping like we discovered, you know, a real gem here. I mean, he’s he’s he’s showing really shown some things and with his length and athleticism. Um and he’s tough his nails. He’s not backing down from anybody. Um crazy competitive. So, and back to the free throws real quick, but Evanically different. I don’t know, Mike. I I know Mike, I haven’t looked at it. I mean, maybe I should look at it, right? But, um, usually these things are are confidence, you know, and he’s probably lost some confidence and guys go through it, you know, they go through these these slumps and and uh he’s a, you know, good free throw shooter. Um, he’ll come back. I just think, you know, probably probably a mental thing, a little bit of confidence lost. Nate, uh, coach, coming into this year, our coming into this game, Houston was number one in free or I’m sorry, rebounds per game. You guys are 17th. Is there a big concern with uh the rebounding aspect? Yeah, I mean, yes. I mean, we got to rebound the ball better. Um, you know, that’s that’s obviously their their strength. I mean, you look at their offensive numbers, right? Not it’s pretty like not you know what, nine for 24 from three. Um 46% you know um field goal you know field goals per field goal attempt and 19 offensive rebounds. So they’re you know that’s their that’s a huge biggest part of their offense and and so that’s their um we’re not built that way obviously. So, um, you know, I felt like last year in the playoffs, we we we did a pretty good job. Best team in the playoffs in the possession game. So, we could we could do it. Um, just got to, you know, focus in on a little more and we obviously hit the team on it tonight, but they they hammered us. I’m I’m a little disappointed. We missed a lot of shots tonight, but we’re we’re not getting the offensive boards, you know. Um, we got some there at the end. Um, but you know, little too little too late. Um, Donovan only had I think seven shots going into the fourth quarter. Were they doing anything defensively to Okay. Blitzed them. You know, they smart, you know, they know we got some guys out. He’s not going to beat us. Let the other guys beat us. Good game plan. Um, yeah. Okay, let’s go a wrap. Coach. All right. protection.

Alperen Sengun had 28 points and 11 rebounds, Kevin Durant scored 20 points, and the Houston Rockets extended their winning streak to five with a 114-104 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.

Aaron Holiday scored 14 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter for Houston, which is 10-1 since starting the season with two losses. Jabari Smith Jr. scored 14 and Amen Thompson had 12 points, nine boards and five steals.

De’Andre Hunter scored 25 points to pace the Cavaliers. Donovan Mitchell added 21 points, 19 in the final period when they got as close as 77-76 before the Rockets answered with back-to-back hoops by Sengun and Thompson.

Evan Mobley had 18 points, but missed six of his 10 free throw attempts for Cleveland, which fell to 2-2 on a six-game homestand, its longest of the season. Jarrett Allen added eight points and seven rebounds.

Houston extended its lead to 69-47 midway through the third on Smith’s jumper, but the Cavaliers ended the quarter on a 23-5 run to pull within 74-70. Mobley had eight points and Lonzo Ball added seven during the surge.

Durant had 13 points and Sengun had 10 points and six rebounds, powering the Rockets to a 57-40 advantage at halftime. Houston led by 14 in the opening quarter and by 20 in the second. | https://www.espn.com/nba/recap/_/gameId/401810110

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